More Tomatoes and Peppers - April 30, 2025

Rain's a-comin'.  Again.  Tonight, they say.

Today, I'm going to try to get some work done in the garden.  It will require a trip to the greenhouse; I may be too lazy to go.

Yesterday, I bought 7 more tomato plants to replace those that I thought had died in the garden.  As it turned out, only 2 plants had actually died; one or two more had been broken off (or chewed off) close to the ground, but they were beginning to regrow leaves.  I did not intend to grow 32 tomato plants this year. but here we are.

In the garden shed was an almost full bag of mushroom compost and half a bag of worm castings.  I used them both up on the tomatoes but ran out of the compost before I ran out of tomatoes.  I can't decide whether to buy more compost or conduct an experiment to see if the composted tomatoes do better than the un-composted ones.  

I planted two jalapeno pepper plants and 4 hills of squash.  

Before supper, I coaxed The Husband into helping me lay down the cardboard boxes I've been saving to use as mulch.  Together with some boxes that Nanny had saved, we were able to cover most of the ground in the tomato rows.  I wish we had enough to do the whole garden . . . once it's planted.  Last year, we covered almost the whole garden with cardboard and landscape fabric.  But not as much pain as weeding, so I may be on the hunt for landscape fabric today.  

I'd hoped to get the purple hull peas and squash seeds in the ground last weekend, but it rained.  The rows could use re-tilling before I plant seeds.  The ground is still too wet to get in there with the tiller, and if it rains tonight as predicted, it'll be another week before we can plant.  I don't know why I feel so anxious about getting this stuff planted SOON.  In past years, I seldom got anything in the ground before the middle of May.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday I went to a dermatologist to see about some skin issues.  One of them was a wart on the top of my hand.  I've blasted this thing THREE TIMES with an over-the-counter freeze pen, but it has never completely gone away.  The dermatologist blasted it with liquid nitrogen.  Today, the wart looks like a black M&M.  I'm scared it'll burst if I bump it.

Shopping - April 29, 2025

For two weeks, I asked The Husband what he'd like to have for his birthday.

Last week when we were traveling, we passed the music store where we'd bought last year's birthday present, a(nother) ukulele.  We decided to stop.  He found an acoustic-electric uke that he thought he wanted until he discovered that it was a baritone uke.  (He already has a baritone uke.)  We left the store with only a set of autoharp strings.

I kept pestering him for birthday present ideas.  Eventually, he said he'd like to have a new grill, knowing there was no way in hell I'd pick one for him; the last time he wanted a new grill, he shopped and shopped and shopped before he found one that suited him, and I never quite understood his criteria.

So, yesterday morning, I went shopping for a ratchet.  A couple of weeks ago, I watched him take out bolts with a bit driver.  This past weekend, his plan to change the oil in the lawnmower was foiled by the lack of a working ratchet.  He might not have wanted a ratchet for a birthday present, but he needed one.

I ended up getting an automotive tool set in a zippered case.  It will fit right under his truck seat.  I threw in a new bit driver set and some man stuff for shaving.  

Maybe next year he'll give me a hint.  ;)

I did cook him a nice birthday dinner:  smothered pork chops, baked sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob.  

Between the shopping and the cooking, I worked on the wedding quilt.  The top right quadrant is now assembled and half quilted.  I'll probably finish quilting it today.  So far, I haven't decided whether it would be better to sew the two top quadrants together and then join them to the bottom half with a horizontal seam, or sew each top quadrant to a bottom quadrant and join the two sides with a vertical seam.  Either way, there's going to be a lot of bulk to handle for that final seam.  It might be easier in the long-run to hand-sew that final seam, as I did with The Granddaughter's quilt (which is still waiting for its binding).  

Today I am going to get some tomato plants to replace the ones that died, assuming I can still find some.  

Sunday dinner - April 28, 2025

I invited the kids and the grandkids and the folks on the hill for supper yesterday to celebrate The Husband's birthday.  Instead of cooking, I cheated and ordered the whole meal from a local barbeque joint.  Eighteen people, counting us.  

Since I didn't have to cook, I had time to work on the wedding quilt.  The piecing is about 60% done.  The top left quadrant is quilted.  The top right quadrant is pieced and ready to quilt.  Part of the lower right quadrant is pieced.  Assuming I actually finish this thing by the late-August deadline, it will be the fastest quilt I've ever made.

I started with the top left quadrant, and it took sewing a few rows to get the hang of it.  It's just 3" x 3" squares, but I could not get all the seams to match perfectly and could not figure out why.  I'd been as careful as possible in cutting out the squares, and as careful as possible in sewing the 1/4" seams.  Why were the seams not matching?  I watched some videos and discovered that the problem was the way I was ironing them.  Seriously.  Once I began ironing them properly, the seams matched perfectly.  Who'd-a thunk it?

I did not take out the mistakes on the first few rows.  Nobody but God is perfect.  ;)

It rained again yesterday, so working in the vegetable garden is off today's to-do list.  There's no more rain in the forecast for the next few days, so maybe we can finish planting before the week is over.  

Hopefully, by the end of the week, the tree that's been laying across our back yard for two weeks will be gone.  

We've had a tough time even getting someone to come look at it and give us an estimate.  Yesterday, a tree guy finally showed up, after church, still dressed in his Sunday best.  He says he'll be here this week if the yard dries up enough.  Before he gets here, I'll need to move some plants so they won't get trampled/flattened.  

When the rest of the tree comes down, the sun/shade is going to change pretty drastically, and I may have to move a LOT stuff to accommodate the new situation.  There's a very large flower bed near the tree.  It's mostly full of garden phlox and hydrangeas.  The phlox probably won't complain about having more light, but the hydrangeas might.  Most of the hydrangeas have been in the ground for less than three years, so they probably won't be hard to move.  The big blue one at the corner of the house has been there for at least 20 years.  It will have to learn to live with (or not) the new sun, for I'd need powerful machinery to move it. 

On the bright side (literally!), that flower bed may now be sunny enough to host some sun-loving annuals, like zinnias and such.  We'll see, once the tree comes down.

Worm Castings - April 27, 2025

I went down to the garden yesterday afternoon to apply the worm castings I'd bought at the plant sale.  I applied two or three handfuls of the stuff around each tomato plant and each broccoli plant.  

Several of our tomato plants have died, probably drowned by all the rain we've had lately.  But the surviving plants looked better than I expected.  Two of them even had blooms, but I pinched them off to allow the plants to gain a little strength before they start producing fruit.  

Fire ants have invaded the garden again.  Nanny dosed the mounds with ant killer while I was spreading the worm poo.  The ant killer just seems to make them move to a new location.  We have battled them in the garden and in Nanny's yard for years, but we'll never get rid of them, for they are in the fields and the roadsides all over the hill.  I am a little worried that we dosed the ants in the garden, for I am not 100% sure it's safe to use in the vegetable garden.  I wish I'd read the label before Nanny started applying it; I'll make sure to do that next time I go to the garden.  If the label says it's not safe for garden use, I'll call the county agent to ask what to do.  

Plant Sale - April 26, 2025

I showed great restraint at the plant sale.  Came home with a deep burgundy African violet and a pot of rose campion.

Oh, and a bag of worm poop.

I never would have glanced at the display except that someone called my name, and when I looked around for the voice, it turned out to be our former next-door neighbor, classmate, and cousin-in-law, selling worm castings.  They surely might help my tomato plants, which were pretty sickly-looking, last time I saw them.  

I should go have a look today.  

Had it not rained again this week, we'd be in the garden, preparing the soil for the rest of the vegetable seeds.  I wanted The Husband to run the tractor tiller over it one more time before I plant, but I may have to resort to firing up the big black tiller - which would probably be better, to tell the truth, but I can't plow a straight row to save me.  Pop-Pop used to say, "Pick out a tree and aim at it," but that never worked; the tiller will go sideways of its own accord because one tire is always low.  My rows probably look like snakes from the air.

I guess I'll put on my gardening shoes and go see what's happening.

From the Back Porch - April 26. 2025

We got home Thursday night after a nearly 8-hour drive.  Lots of slow-downs on the interstate.  Seriously, we could have been there just as soon (and far less nerve-wracked) if we'd taken the backroads.

It was an okay trip.  

The embroidery kit that I bought to do on the road was a waste of money, as far as results are concerned.  The background fabric is royal blue.  The embroidery outlines (flowers, a guitar, and some words) are stamped on it in black.  These old eyes had a hard time seeing the lines.  Strike one.  Too, the embroidery thread is poor quality.  I forgot to take my scissors - actually, I thought I'd left scissors in the truck, just for trips - and the only tools I had available were a badass hunting knife from The Husband's console or a plastic letter-opener from my schlepping bag.  Both of these cutting devices left tiny hairs on the thread that made threading the needle nearly impossible while traveling at 70 mph.  Strike two.  To tell the truth, the design might be a little too complicated for my skill level.  I've done a lot of embroidery in my life, but mostly cross-stitch.  This kit uses several stitches that I'm not very good at executing, like satin stitches. Especially at 70 mph.  Strike three.  Needless to say, I didn't get much done.  About 150 miles from home, I stuffed it in the bag and gave up.  But I do intend to finish it, once the quilts are done.  I have loads of better thread in this house, and a hands-free magnifying glass.  

On the first leg of the trip, we spent the night in Cookeville.  We like to stay at a Best Western, where there's a pretty good Mexican restaurant right in the parking lot.  To our chagrin, the restaurant was closed for Easter Sunday, so we had to get back in the truck and drive somewhere to get dinner.  Bummer.

On Monday, The Husband was free until dinner, so we went to an antique mall outside of Sevierville (I think).  Didn't find a thing we wanted.  There's a really, really good music store on the way back to the hotel.  (REALLY good.)  We got a new set of strings for the autoharp that we bought on our last junking adventure.  

Tuesday and Wednesday, I mostly read books.

The truck was packed and ready to roll home by the time The Husband finished his conference at 11.  We stopped again in Cookeville for hot dogs and gas.  Made it home about 7:15.

Son #2 was outside his workshop, putting the carburetor on my little tiller.  After we hauled our stuff in the house, I walked across the road to see how it was going.  He fired it up just about the time I got there.  He's going to use it to till his flower beds before he brings it home.

I was a slug yesterday.  Didn't even glance at the quilts in progress.  I did manage to get to the grocery store.  Go me.

I'm going to a plant sale today.  

It's good to be home.

On the road again - April 20, 2025

I'm packed (all but the laptop I'm currently using) for the next road trip.  Ain't gonna lie, I'm not excited about it.  Neither is The Husband, but it's a work-related trip, and he's gotta go.  I'm going just so that he doesn't have to go by himself.

The Granddaughter's quilt is laid out on a spare bed, still lacking a tiny bit of quilting and the binding.  I started this quilt in the car, exactly one year ago today.  (I know this because I embroidered the date on the first block, mostly as a joke related to how long it takes me to actually finish things.)  I've worked on it almost every day since then.  This quilt may be the first one on which I concentrated on the process rather than the product, and I learned some things from it.  I shall resume work on it when we get back from our trip.

Laid out on the sewing table is 25% (plus some) of the wedding quilt I started last week.  Five colors, cut into squares that will finish 3" x 3".  The squares are laid out so that the colors create diamond-shaped stripes.  Had to map it out on graph paper, marking off the rows as I complete them.  This one is machine-pieced and machine-quilted; it needs to be done by the end of August.  I'm doing a quilt-as-you-go method. 

The binding of both quilts had me stumped until yesterday, when I watched a quilting show on PBS that talked about "big stitch binding."  The Granddaughter's quilt is white, except for the blue, rose, and green embroidery.  I could not decide whether to do white binding or use a colored print.  The big stitch binding segment opened up other possibilities.  I may use the left-over embroidery threads to do some colored stitching in white binding.  We'll see.  If that works well, I've got a whole box of pearl cotton thread - dozens of colors - that might work on the wedding quilt binding, assuming I'll have time to do some hand-stitching. 

I bought an embroidery kit to take on the road trip, something to do in the car.  I've packed my traveling watercolor supplies to use if I get stir-crazy in the hotel room.  And the Kindle is loaded with books.  

The only thing missing is my personal laptop.  I took it to the repair store more than a week ago to have my keyboard cleaned.  (I splashed watercolor brush-washing water on it, and it makes crunchy sounds when I type.)  The technician said it would be cheaper to just order a new keyboard, but it hasn't come in yet.  There is some work-related stuff that I need to tend to next week, so I'm taking the work laptop that I still have custody of, but I'll want/need to do some personal web-surfing, too, and I hate to do it on the work laptop using hotel wi-fi.  

Today is Easter Sunday.  Son #1 and his family have invited us over for Easter dinner at 1:00.  We will probably have the car packed so that we can hit the road after dinner.

See you when we get home!

T-A-R-D - April 18, 2025

That's how Daddy used to say it:  "tard."

I woke up "tard" this morning.  It was one of those nights where you fight the bedcovers and have bizarre dreams that you can't quite recall but can still feel the drama.  

I thought it was Sunday until The Husband reminded me that it's actually Friday.

That's what traveling with do for you.

And we've got to go again, come Sunday.  

Yesterday, I had breakfast with my aunts and my sister.  We sat drinking coffee for a long time.  I took my sister a little pot of ornamental sweet pea sprouts. 

Speaking of sprouts, after I got back home from breakfast, I walked down to the garden to check its progress.  The anasazi beans have come up sparsely.  I think they can't get through the hard crust from the last storm (which I intended to bust up last week but never got around to it).  Most of the tomatoes are yellow and sickly but hanging in there.  They went in the ground too early and may be stunted.  Do things ever recover from stunting?

A rabbit (or something not a bug) is eating the broccoli.  

The kohlrabi never came up.

The onions are doing fine.

When we get back from this next trip, I'm going to plant everything else.

I wish we'd gotten the hiller/hipper/row-maker thing so we could make up rows with the tractor in the remaining garden space.  Did I tell you what happened with that?  We found one on sale online.  It was supposed to be here on April 2.  On April 3, the tracking said that the package had been damaged in shipment and was still at the shipping hub.  My thought was that it would be hard to damage the CONTENTS of the package (it's a steel farm implement, for crying out loud), and I tried to contact both FedEx and the implement company to see if they would just bring it to me and let me check it out.  But, no.  FedEx auto-responded to a customer service request with information that was useless.  The company said they couldn't send another because they're out of stock.  So, this year, once again, it'll be me and the hoe, making crooked rows.

Pop-Pop always said you could plant more on a crooked row.

I'm having a hard time deciding what I'll do for the next couple of days.  I need to turn in my travel expenses for reimbursement, and I'd like a little face time with The Boss while I'm there.  I need a haircut; it's been I-don't-know-how-long since I've had one, and I'm seriously shaggy.  I need a new outfit to wear next week when The Husband's work conference has its "big do" night, as everything I own has been washed 1,000 times and is pilled-up and/or faded, or is too big or too little.  I'd like to have some needlework (or something) to do on the long drive to/from the conference and during the day when I'm stuck at the hotel.  All of this stuff will require putting on clothes and driving, neither of which is appealing at the moment. 

On the other hand, there's The Granddaughter's quilt, piled on the couch where I tossed it last night after quilting a couple of heart shapes before I went to bed.  It needs a few more quilted heart shapes and a binding, and it'll be done.  There is also the wedding quilt, a couple of sections of which are laid out on the sewing table, ready to be joined together.  

I ought to go see how the garden is faring.  

What to do . . . ?

* * * * * * * * 

Well, after a couple of phone calls, my day is planned.  I'm dressed and ready for a 1:00 haircut appointment.  Looks like today is the day for errand-running.

Meanwhile, maybe I'll go join those quilt sections.

Home - April 15, 2025

I'm home safe, but not necessarily sound (my nerves are SHOT) from my trip.  It would have taken less than 4 hours on the interstate, but I opted for the shortest backroads route, which took about 5.5 hours.  The GPS app on my phone sent me home a different route, and at one point I feared I was lost, but I made it ok.

The hotel was nice, but trains woke me up at night.  When one of my classmates complained of the same thing, I said that the night noises I'm used to are from owls, frogs, and coyotes.  When I got home, Hooty (our resident owl) let out a big hoot that made me laugh.  I guess he was welcoming me home.

The class was pretty good.  I chatted up my fellow classmates and made some good contacts.  It was worth the trip.

But I'm tired and hungry and need a shower.  Catch you tomorrow.

Traveling - April 13, 2025

I'm having one more cup of coffee before I embark on my long-dreaded solo trip.  I'll be taking backroads all the way, so there's no telling what time I'll get to my destination.  

For the past two days, I've worked steadily on the two quilts (Granddaughter #3's quilt and the wedding quilt).  Last night, I finished the final seam on #3's quilt.  There's still a bit of hand-quilting to do.  I'll do that and add the binding when I get home.

I am again attempting a "quilt-as-you-go" method on the wedding quilt. This quilt will be made entirely from 3.5" x 3.5" squares, with the five colors arranged in a concentric diamond pattern.  I drew the design on graph paper and am using the drawing as a map to construct one row at a time.  The plan is to build and quilt the thing in sections, then attach them together, much I did with #3's quilt, except that I'll do all the work on the machine.  Hopefully this one will go faster.

I have tried to be so SO careful in both the cutting and the sewing, but still the seams aren't matching perfectly.  It's puzzling.  Maybe I'll figure it out by the time I get to the last row.

Yesterday afternoon, Son #1 showed up on his lawnmower and mowed most of our yard.  I was so grateful.  There's a lot of storm debris in our yard, and when I saw him mowing, I ran outside, grabbed the wagon, and started picking up limbs.  #1's lawnmower is huge, and he made short work of the mowing.  When he finished, he stayed to visit a while.  It was nice to have him all to myself.

The Little Rotten Baby was the flower girl in her cousin's wedding yesterday.  She has been SO EXCITED for days.  We wondered if she would chicken out with stage fright at the last minute, but, no, she sprinkled those petals, smiling like an angel. 

Time to hit the road.  

Garden Check - April 11, 2025

I checked on the garden yesterday, expecting chaos, and was pleasantly surprised.

Despite all the rain we've had, all but a few of the tomato plants are surviving (so far).  

The broccoli looks great.

Onions are up, some 6" tall.

A few of the anasazi beans have sprouted.  The soil above them is a hard crust right now from having been pounded by rain.  I'm going to the garden later today to see if I can crack the crust without digging up the seeds.

None of the snow pea seeds have sprouted.  I may keep the faith for a while longer.  Last week, I planted some ornamental sweet peas, which the instructions said should be scarified and might take 2 weeks to sprout.  Snow peas might be slackers, too.  Although I planted some last year, I can't remember how long they took to sprout. I should go back to last year's posts and figure it out.

P.S. - It took less than two weeks for last year's peas to sprout.  

April 11, 2025

Yesterday, we were scheduled for a visit from the septic tank pumper.  Dude said he'd call 30 minutes before arrival.  When it seemed obvious that we were not the first job on his list, I decided to work on a problem that's been annoying me ever since I retired.

You see, I'd applied for Social Security benefits, had been approved, but had not received any payments. I knew that these things take time, but I was worried.  The application approval notice, sent just a few days into the new administration, had said that I'd receive a letter showing the amount of my benefit and the timing of the payments within 10 days, or so, but we were well beyond that, and no further correspondence had come.  Considering all of the chaos reported by the media, I was worried that my application had fallen through the cracks and wanted to speak to a live person about it.  I started calling.

Long story short, I spent a total of FIVE HOURS on hold and finally got through.  Although this was not said outright, the ball was dropped, the process stalled.  Hopefully, it's fixed now.  Hopefully.  

One number that I called warned that the wait time would be two hours.  I put the phone on speaker and sat down at the sewing machine to begin piecing the wedding gift quilt.  My wait was nearly three hours.  Made astonishing progress on the quilt. 

Next! - April 10, 2025

The quilt is on the couch, its final seam partially stitched.  If I'd really get after it, I could finish that seam today, and then it would be ready for binding.  I haven't made the binding yet.  I have enough plain white fabric to do it, but I'm not sure I want white.  Maybe a little color around the edge would be nice.  

It'll take a long time to sew on the binding.

The Husband and I both have work-related trips next week, and two days after he gets home, he has another work-related trip.  I'll go with him on that second trip, another long drive.  Riding shotgun is the perfect time to do needlework, but I don't want to wrestle a whole quilt in the passenger seat, so what I can't get done before I go on my trip will have to wait until we get back from the second trip.

My BFF's daughter is getting married later this year, and I've been planning a quilt for a wedding present.  Thinking I could work on it while traveling, I sat down yesterday morning and sketched out my idea on graph paper, and yesterday afternoon I went to Hobby Lobby to buy fabric.  As soon as I got home, I washed and dried it, cut off a gob of ravelings, ironed it, and re-folded it.  At that point, I discovered that the fabric had been cut terribly crooked.  I'd stood there and watched the clerk cut the fabric; she'd done it carefully.  All I can conclude is that the fabric had been wound crookedly on the bolt.  

I have been sewing since I was a kid, and I do not recall this crookedness occurring with fabric we bought from the local fabric store (long since out of business).  

Thinking of the old fabric store brings back a lot of warm memories.  It was run by an elderly couple who had no children and were always so kind to kids who came in the store.  Once, when my mother and I were in the store before Easter, the old gentleman asked Mother if I had a white dress for Easter.  When she said that I didn't, he cut off enough white fabric for a dress for me and gave it to us for free.  I don't remember the dress, only the kindness of the old couple.

Anyway . . . .

I've cut out a big stack of 3.5" blocks, enough to keep me busy while traveling.  If I finish this quilt before the late summer wedding, it will be a miracle. 

Win some, lose some - April 8, 2025

I spent most of yesterday trying to solve problems that irk me.

I called the power company to come look at the guy wire that has grown into the tree that must be taken down before it wrecks our house.  He said he'd come have a look at it.  If he came yesterday, I missed him and haven't heard from him.

The second call was to the company where we bought the hipper/hiller/row-maker to tell them that FedEx damaged the package (since I haven't received any response from FedEx).  They are out of stock and can't send a replacement.  They are going to refund our money.  

Still waiting on a call from the septic tank pumper.

On the bright side, the replacement motor for the leaf shredder arrived yesterday.  

On the even brighter side, The Husband figured out how to replace the motor, all by himself, and when he turned it on, it worked, and nothing flew off.

Today, I'm going to finish quilting the heart shapes on Rows 3, 4, and 5.  Although I intend to forge ahead as I'm doing - the project is too far along to turn back now - I'm not happy with the way it's turning out.  The seams are not matching well, and the backing is bulging around the edges of the blocks.  

[Eight hours later]

Well, the quilt rows are all joined together.  It's on the sewing table now, having its batting joined.  Tomorrow, I'll start blind-stitching that long, final top seam.

It's a shame that I'm just now catching on to better ways of doing things when I'm near the end.

Rant, Part Two - April 7, 2025

My frustration level is about to rise off the chart this morning.

In yesterday's post. I told you about tree damage from the weekend storms.  Our backyard is full of giant limbs, and the tree from which they fell needs to be taken down.  The pile seems to grow bigger every time I look at it.  We had a tree cutter look at it yesterday and give us an estimate on the cost.  During the inspection, he noticed that tree roots have grown into a guy wire from the electric pole.  The power company is coming today to have a look.  Of course, the ground is far too wet for any work to happen right now.  

It's been a wet spring.  Our septic tank filled with water two weeks ago, and we had to have it pumped.  More than 12" of rain has fallen here since Wednesday.  Our septic tank is full again and must be pumped again. 

The hiller/hipper/row-maker still hasn't been delivered.  Tracking says that the package was damaged, but I can't get any instructions from either FedEx or the equipment company on how to proceed.

The carburetor for the little red tiller is on backorder.  (Not that I could use it right now, anyway.  The garden is soup.)

The replacement motor for the leaf grinder hasn't shipped yet.  I hope this free replacement offer wasn't a scam.

Next Sunday, I have to make a 4-hour drive (if I take the interstate) BY MYSELF, then go to a class for a day and a half and drive back home BY MYSELF.  The Husband can't go because he, too, has a trip. I dread it.  The interstate scares the crap out of me, so I am hunting a backroads route.  When I travel with The Husband, I can't stand to watch when we're on the interstate, so I read or do needlework to keep from working the passenger brake and sucking air, both of which annoy my driver.  I cannot express the amount of anxiety that this trip is causing me.  For over 30 years, my 20-minute drive to work has involved no more than a couple of stop signs and a red light, at no more than 45 mph.  I encounter maybe 10 other cars until I get to town.  I can't imagine driving 70 mph among big trucks and other drivers (most of whom are driving 80+ mph).  And construction.  And wrecks.  Plus, my car is old, and though it has bluetooth, the map program tells me to make a turn roughly 10 seconds after I pass the turn.  

It may take me 8 hours to get where I'm going.  

And the government is f*cking up my retirement money, every way it can.

So, how's your day?

There's one good thing to report: the quilt is moving along.  I've stitched Row 5 to rows 3 and 4 and am more than half-way through blind-stitching the top seam.  Once that's done, I'll quilt the heart shapes in the block corners, and the whole chunk will be ready to attach to Rows 1 and 2.  

"Rainy," my *ss - April 6, 2025

Yesterday's post heading, "Rainy Saturday," was a bit of an understatement. It was raining when I got up at 5 a.m., and raining when I went to bed at 10 p.m., and at just about every minute in-between.  

Around noon, things began to get serious.  Tornadoes.  Flooding.  Straight-line winds near 90 mph.  It was scary.

As the strongest storm approached, The Husband and I went outside to look at the sky.  We heard a loud crack and then a big THUD, and ran around to the back yard to find this:

A big limb had fallen out of the ash tree.

The Grandkids' swing set is under that pile of limbs.

The Little Rotten Baby is going to be *pissed*.  So are we, when we have to tackle that pile with the chainsaw and the tractor.

I spent most of the day working on the quilt.  Made good progress.  All of the rows are finished.  Four of the rows are stitched together in pairs.  There's still some quilting to do in the corners where the blocks join.  

The hand-sewing would go much faster if I could resolve my thimble situation.  There must be a dozen thimbles in this house, but none of them will stay on my finger because of the arthritis knot on my knuckle.  I spend more time looking for dropped thimbles than I spend wearing them.  I bought two kinds of leather thimbles, and one of them worked fairly well until the needle wore holes in it. If it could only hold out a little while longer!   For the past few days, I've been wrapping my thimble finger with stretchy bandage tape before putting on the leather thimble. It's cumbersome, but better than ramming the blunt end of the needle through my skin.

Rainy Saturday - April 5, 2025

It's raining again this morning.  The ground is like soup.  Off in the distance, I heard a monstrous crash, likely some rain-soaked tree hitting the ground hard.  

I've been up since before 5.  Finished a book with my first cup of coffee, then brought my laptop out to the porch for my morning surfing and puzzling.  At least it's not cold.

I don't have any plan for today except to work on the quilt in my comfy chair.  I made good progress yesterday.  Rows 1 and 2 are joined and finished.  Rows 3 and 4 are joined but the top seam needs stitching.  Row 5 needs its top seam stitched, then all the rows can be joined together.  I dread hand-sewing those long seams.  Then the quilt will lack only binding.  I bought white fabric to make binding, but I may bind it with pink, instead.  Last week, Granddaughter #3 brought me a baby pink plastic button and said it was her favorite color.  The pink embroidery in this quilt leans more toward rose pink.  Maybe I can find something that will work.

From the back porch - April 4, 2025

I need two things:

(1) somebody with some sense to make decisions; and

(2) a talented, eager apprentice with no agenda but mine (an elf, more or less).

There are so many irons in my fire that I'm in kind of a stupor.  

Yesterday was a yucky, stormy day.  I spent a large part of it in my chair, stitching quilt blocks together.  By bedtime, I'd finished Strip 4 and joined the backs of Strip 5. Strip5 is laid out on the sewing room table now, its seam pressed, ready to have its innards joined and its skin sewn neatly shut.  ;)  The plan is to finish Strip 5 today and/or tomorrow.

Innards showing.

My morning routine - coffee, news, email, word puzzle - has distracted me.  One click leads to another, and off we go on a tangent.  

I clicked on a video about painting chickens.  I did not watch it for long because it reminded me that I did some chickens a long time ago - a series of 4 colored pencil drawings portraying scenes in a chicken yard, the last of which needs re-doing because its colors clashed with the other 3 drawings. I think those drawings would make terrific greeting cards.  Off I go, looking for the chicken yard drawings.

I thought I knew right where they were, in the make-shift portfolio under the sewing table, where I keep my better artwork.  I dumped the portfolio contents atop the quilt.  The chickens weren't there.  I did not look for them in the other likely places because I got distracted, admiring my former work.  ;)

Once upon a time, I set a goal of producing greeting cards with these drawings.  The intention was to donate the cards to an animal rescue group fundraiser, and maybe even offer them for sale in a booth or something.  I even bought a card rack to display them. 

(These are not finished cards.)

Most of the drawings have been scanned, and I've created a card template.  I've got enough blank cards and envelopes to fill up that rack.  All I need to do is decide which drawings to use and then print them.  But my printer isn't "all that," and the printed colors are muted.  There's probably a setting, somewhere, that would make the printing better, but I haven't found it.

I should check into how much it would cost to just have the blasted things printed . . . . 

. . . while I work on the quilt.

Rant - April 3, 2025

I feel a rant coming on.

Let me get this out of the way:

Politics.  I am sick of it.  I can't even stand to watch the news anymore.  I recently heard someone describe what is happening as being orchestrated by people acting like drunk monkeys with chainsaws.  Perfect description.  Absolutely perfect.

The worst part is that I feel constrained to even publicly state my disapproval.  

WTF?  This is America.

This is America?

* * * * * * * *

We got a whale of a storm last night.  Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee all took a beating.  The last time a tornado hit our county, FEMA was here immediately to address urgent needs and help us begin the recovery process.  I hope the places that took tornado damage in this storm will have good assistance.

The storm filled our septic tank with water.  The toilets will overflow if we flush them.  We had the tank pumped about a month ago.  If we have it pumped today, we'll have to have it pumped again after the storms predicted for the next couple of days.  Doing our "business" is going to be challenging until the storms pass and we can do something about the problem.

I expect that my garden is drowning.  A squirrel would mar up in that sludge.  If the Anasazi beans don't sprout, it sure won't be for a lack of moisture.  

Our yard is a shaggy jungle, surrounded by trees.  Winter ice broke limbs all around the property.  I've been picking them up for a month, but the storms keep dropping more.  I'll have to clean up yet again before we can mow.

I'm sitting here on the back porch, watching the birds come for breakfast.  Brown-headed cowbirds make a ridiculous "plop-PLOP" call when they're feeding.  I just watched one chasing - on foot - a little brown sparrow who wanted to join the buffet.  The sparrow wasn't giving up and could run faster, so finally the cowbird flew at the sparrow with puffed-out wings, like it meant business.  And still the sparrow didn't give in, and it looked like an all-out brawl was about to happen.  I hollered, "HEY!  Y'all cut that out!"  And everybody flew away.

But the sparrow came back first, with reinforcements.  They managed to snag a few bites before the cowbirds came back en masse and startled them away.

I made pretty good progress on the quilt yesterday.  After trying different methods of stitching the blocks together, I finally came up with a method that seems to work.  I press one seam allowance  under, overlap it with the other seam allowance, and machine baste it in place.  

Basted seam

To stitch the seams together, I pinch both seams up (so I can access them more comfortably) and join them with ladder stitches.  

Pinched seams

Once the hand-stitching is done, I remove the basting stitches.  I'm satisfied with the strength and the invisibility of the ladder stitches.

Stitched seam

(Hopefully, those blue stamped seamline markings will wash out completely!)

This quilt will be 4 blocks wide by five blocks long, a full-size quilt.  So far, I have assembled three strips of four blocks and will finish ladder-stitching the fourth strip tonight.  Strips 1 and 2 have been sewn together.  Strips 3 and 4 will be sewn together, then joined with Strip 5 (which is not yet assembled), and then I'll sew strips 2 and 3 together.  

There's some hand-quilting left to do before I can assemble the strips.  The four corners where the blocks join make a large un-quilted area.  I am quilting four heart shapes, arranged like a clover leaf, in these bare corners.  This quilting needs to be done before the quilt is fully assembled so that I won't have to handle the entire quilt the whole time.  I joined strips 1 and 2 before I quilted their hearts.  It was a pretty good lap-full, so before I assembled strip 3, I quilted the hearts on each block before I sewed the blocks together.  It must have been luck that kept my stitching from encroaching the seam allowances too much to then sew the backing on the sewing machine when it came time to assemble the strip.  (That sentence will probably make sense only if you've tried a quilt-as-you-go method and encountered the problem, yourself.)

I should run my errand before the next storm hits. 

Round 2 - April 2, 2025

Another round of storms is on the way.  It's supposed to arrive here this afternoon. It's already windy and overcast outside.  The Grandson was scheduled to be on his way home today (on a yellow school bus with the other kids), but he said they might wait until tomorrow, depending on the storm.  He's supposed to text me when he has an ETA, but I haven't seen anything from him yet.

Pennies from heaven fell on me yesterday.  A week ago, I emailed the company that manufactured our leaf shredder to see if I could buy a power switch for it. The person who answered the email assumed that the shredder was under warranty and asked for copies of invoices, pictures, and video of the shredder not cranking.  After a few back-and-forth emails, he called. It's a miracle I answered the phone, for I usually block unfamiliar numbers without answering the call.  Thank goodness I did.  The company is replacing the whole motor, switch and all, for FREE.  How about that?  The Husband thinks he might be able to do the mechanic work.  If not, we've got two sons and a brother-in-law who can fix nearly anything, if one of them can find the time to get to it.

I wanted to carve today but can't find my carving glove.  Here's a bear that I carved earlier in the week.  He might be the best thing I've carved so far.  

  

Storm - April 1, 2025

It stormed here Sunday night.  We were under a tornado watch for most of the night.  About 9 p.m., pea-sized hail started falling.  

Yesterday at lunch time, The Husband texted me, "Have you checked the tomato plants?"  

It was odd that he would ask me a question about the garden, for that usually results in my enlisting his help with some chore, so he rarely brings up the subject unprovoked.  I figured that he'd heard a bad report from Nanny.  It turned out that a co-worker had said that the hail had beaten down their squash plants.  I said I'd walk down to the garden to check on our stuff.  

I put on some shoes and stepped out the door.  When I rounded the corner of the house, the cold wind sent me back in the house until later in the day.  Our tomatoes mostly looked okay.  I'd planted them deep, with just their tops sticking out of the ground, so there wasn't much danger of being broken by the hail. A couple of the plants had a leaf stuck to the soil.  When I stepped into the row to un-stick them, my foot sank up to the ankle in mud.  It's a good thing my crocs were "locked and loaded" or I'd have lost one in the mud.  We're supposed to get more storms in the next couple of days, so whatever I might have done for the plants yesterday would probably get un-done tomorrow.

The weather app on my phone is predicting temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s for early next week.  When I planted the tomatoes, I imagined that I would cover them with plastic shopping bags if we were to get a frost.  But the weather man says we may get 8"-10" of rain with the new round of storms, and the garden soil will be like quicksand for days afterward.  I might rather re-plant than try to salvage those that are already in the ground.

It was heartening to see that the onion sets are sprouting.  The broccoli looks happy.  Didn't see a sign of the kohlrabi I planted from seeds. I'm not sure I'll recognize it when/if it comes up.

Yesterday I planted some sweet peas (the ornamental kind).  The planting instructions said to scarify the seeds, then soak them in water overnight.  I scrubbed them on sandpaper and soaked them and planted them in pots.  The blasted things had better sprout; I paid a ridiculous amount for 10 seeds.  

Our hiller/hipper/row-maker is supposed to arrive today.  I hope to catch the delivery truck before the driver unloads it to ask him/her to unload it at Nanny's, where the tractor and garden are.  It'll probably be more than a week before the ground dries up enough to use it.

Granddaughter #3's quilt is progressing slowly.  I work on it every day for a few minutes at a time, until my hand goes numb from pinching the needle.  It's a learn-as-I-go situation.  If I were making this quilt for myself, I'd probably have given up before the embroidery was done.  But, you know . . . grandchildren.